​Bentley’s new design boss jumps ship to McLaren (inside three months)

Tobias Sühlmann McLaren Chief Design Officer 2023 (with F1 and F1 LM classics)

After only three months as Bentley’s design director Tobias Sühlmann has joined McLaren as chief design officer

McLaren Automotive has (finally) found a brand-new chief design officer in Tobias Sühlmann. His appointment was announced today – Friday 21st April 2023 – and he starts his new role in September, which will be more than a year after the previous long-standing design director Rob Melville left it vacant for Middle Eastern pastures new – becoming chief design officer for CEER, a Saudi Arabian electric vehicle start-up business. 

McLaren Automotive will be hoping Sühlmann sticks around longer than in his previous top-job role at Bentley though. He lasted less than three months as director of design at the Crewe-based brand, after a January 24th 2023 announcement and official February 1st start. To be fair, Sühlmann had joined Bentley back in October 2021 as head of exterior design and was described by its PR as “instrumental” in the creation of the Batur limited-run grand tourer. And he only gained the overall Bentley design director position after his former boss, Andreas Mindt was sent back to Germany to take over the design reins at Volkswagen passenger cars from the ousted Jozef Kabaň.

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